Meet Tom Pritzker, foreign policy analyst

During the Iraq surge in 2008 when the Bush administration poured in additional troops, Tom Pritzker was called to the Pentagon for a meeting. A Department of Defense official wanted to know if the Hyatt Hotels chairman would consider a hotel in Baghdad “to stabilize things.”

“I looked him straight in the eye and said, 'Yes, I can help you. I'll give you Bill Marriott's phone number.' ”

The quick wit was vintage Pritzker.

“If you can inject humor into it, you can take the air out of the balloon,” says the businessman, who this month was named chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. The organization has a $40 million budget, employs some 350 people and counts among its 50-plus board members former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski along with Chicago business leaders Lester Crown, Bill Daley and Jim McNerney.

“It's interesting and relevant to other aspects of my life and relevant to where we are this time in history. You may have noticed there are a few problems out there,” says Pritzker, who took on the volunteer job because “I think I can add value by bringing in a businessperson's experience to the table.”

He's the first business executive in the top board role, replacing former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat who stepped down after 17 years.

John Hamre, the center's CEO, says Pritzker “embodies the way foreign policy has evolved” from a government-to-government process to one that has the private sector helping shape world developments. “He is a patriotic American but he's wise about the forces in the world and helping us as we're trying to change our approach to our mission,” Hamre says.

Pritzker will talk weekly with Hamre and lead at least a half-dozen meetings throughout the year. He'll also have a hand in an upcoming capital campaign.

He also, of course, will continue to head the board of the Chicago-based Hyatt chain founded by his father and operating 618 properties in 51 countries.

Pritzker feels a deep connection to Asia. He made his first trip to China in 1976 during the Cultural Revolution. He and wife Margot Pritzker collect South Asian art and do field research through expeditions in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau. Fifteen years ago, on a trip to western Nepal, they discovered a complete library of 13th-century books sealed behind a wall. Since then, the Pritzkers, who have three children and a grandson, have dedicated themselves to the area, building a school, clinic and monastery.

It all speaks to understanding cultures, Pritzker says, in business and beyond.

He circles back to his visit to the Pentagon. Defense officials had encouraged Pritzker to visit Iraq before deciding on whether to flag a hotel there. So in 2008, he toured the country under military security and came to know Gen. David Petraeus, who led U.S. troops there.

Pritzker saw firsthand how the “clear and hold” phase of action was transformed into “clear, hold and build.” “They went in and got factories and refineries reopened,” he says. “They created jobs and growth and thereby created hope.”

The U.S. has yet to institutionalize that learning as “a tool for conduct of our foreign policy,” Pritzker adds, and that's what he wants to explore with CSIS. “Once you've got a population that has hope and an interest in stability, the future is going to be better.”